A day after Union home minister Amit Shah said the Supreme Court order granting bail to AAP national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal not a routine judgement, the apex court on Thursday said it did not make any exception to anybody.
These remarks were made during the hearing of the Delhi Chief Minister’s plea challenging his arrest.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said that it intends to imminently file a prosecution complaint (chargesheet against) against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in a money laundering case linked to the purported excise policy scam. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the ED, conveyed to a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta, “We are proposing to file the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. We will do it shortly. It is in the pipeline.”
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Kejriwal, said that he can file affidavit on what a top minister said about the Supreme Court granting interim bail to Kejriwal.
The bench said it will not go into this and while granting bail it “did not make exception for anybody”
In an interview to news agency, Home Minister Amit Shah said Kejriwal’s comments in an election rally that a vote for the “broom” (Aam Aadmi Party symbol) is a “clear contempt of the Supreme Court”.
“I believe that this is a clear contempt of the Supreme Court. So what he wants to say is that if he wins, even if he is guilty, the Supreme Court will not send him to jail. Now that judges who pronounced the judgement have to see if their judgement is used or misused,” Amit Shah said.
He also said that many people feel the Supreme Court’s decision granting interim bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the excise policy case is akin to him getting special treatment. Amit Shah said that the judgement in the case was not a routine judicial order.
“Supreme Court has the right to interpret the law, I believe this is not a routine judgement,” Shah said
Kejriwal was apprehended on March 21 in connection with the case. On May 10, the apex court granted interim bail to Kejriwal until June 1 in the money laundering case associated with the alleged Delhi excise policy scam. He is required to surrender on June 2. Nevertheless, the court prohibited him from accessing his office or the Delhi secretariat, and from signing official documents unless deemed absolutely necessary for obtaining the lieutenant governor’s approval.
The case pertains to purported corruption and money laundering in the formulation and implementation of the Delhi government’s excise policy for 2021-22, which has since been annulled.